A ‘Flexible’ teaching career- justteachers are ahead of the game.

Published: Friday March 08 2019 by Melanie Crewe

A ‘Flexible’ teaching career- justteachers are ahead of the game.

In March 2018, well before the recent DfE announcement was made to include the encouragement of flexible working hours for teachers, justteachers successfully launched our jt ‘flexi’ scheme. We knew from the onset that introducing a job-sharing scheme would be hugely popular and would go a long way to meet the large demand of teaching staff who were registering with us and looking for part-time roles only.

Many of these teachers had seriously considered leaving the profession after taking time out (for reasons such as maternity leave, sickness, career break etc.), as they felt it was an impossible and unrealistic expectation to return to the classroom environment on a part-time basis.

When we discussed our ‘job-share’ flexi scheme with them, whereby we match them with like-minded teaching professionals with similar teaching styles to cover 1 full-time role, the majority were convinced it could actually work for them.

Over many years, we have built up strong and trusting relationships with our clients which enables us to recommend 2 pre ‘matched’ and suitably experienced part-time teachers to cover one full-time vacancy. We have explained to them and demonstrated with tangible examples, that the flexible working approach has both encouraged teachers to want to stay in the profession and increased personal and team effectiveness.

When schools are indeed prepared to hire on a flexible working basis, it pays off. First and foremost- part-time job adverts on behalf of the school generate much more interest and response from candidates that otherwise might not be available or interested in the first instance- therefore increasing the candidate pool to choose from.

From the onset of the appointment(s), there is clarity on the expectations from all parties- without the need for uncomfortable conversations at a later date. The part-time teachers are matched on their pre-defined requirements and availability to suitably cover a full-time, 5-day week position.

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